NEWS FROM THE
House International
Relations Committee
Benjamin A. Gilman, Chairman
DATE: October 13, 1999
FOR RELEASE: Immediate
Contact: Lester Munson, Communications Director (202)225-5021
GILMAN: "NORTH KOREA MAY STILL BE PURSUING A NUCLEAR PROGRAM"
WASHINGTON (October 13) - U.S. Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (20th-NY), Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said that "North Korea may still be pursuing a nuclear program" and "is arguably the largest proliferator of missiles and enabling technology in the world," at a committee hearing on North Korea today.
In August, House Speaker Dennis Hastert appointed Gilman to lead a study of North Korea's threat to the United States and its allies. The North Korea Advisory Group is expected to issue an unclassified report in late October.
Gilman's full statement follows:
"Without question, North Korea constitutes one of our nation's greatest foreign policy challenges. The Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) is also the country most likely to involve the United States in a large-scale regional war over the near term.
"Five years after the advent of the 1994 Agreed Framework and the beginnings of our policy of engagement, North Korea has become the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in East Asia. Our nation will send over $270 million in aid to North Korea this year alone. We have sent almost $750 million to the DPRK since 1995. Our nation is now arguably North Korea's main benefactor.
"Despite this influx of aid, North Korea remains a significant threat to our nation's interests. In fact, the concern is so great about the comprehensive threat posed by the DPRK to American interests that the Speaker has asked me to form a Republican North Korea Advisory Group to look at this matter. We plan to issue a unclassified report in the near future which will address the North Korean threat.
"There is reason to be concerned about North Korea today. The threat to U.S. interests continues and is in fact be spreading into less conventional areas. The DPRK has deployed three new types of missile since 1993 -the newest capable of striking our nation. This is a clear and present danger to our national security and allows North Korea to create a balance of terror in Northeast Asia.
"North Korea arguably is the largest proliferator of missiles and enabling technology in the world today. Its transfers to South Asia and to the Middle East are particularly distressing and potentially destabilizing.
"Despite the Agreed Framework, North Korea may still be pursuing a nuclear program. The DPRK may be seeking a parallel program based on highly enriched uranium which strongly suggests that North Korea never intended to curb its nuclear ambitions.
"My greatest fear is that this unpredictable regime in Pyongyang will combine its covert nuclear weapons program with an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States --- and our policy will have failed to prevent it.
"North Korea continues to improve its conventional force structure despite its economic decline. North Korea buys military equipment from abroad -- such as MiG-21's from Kazakhstan -- while its people go hungry. It feeds the party elite and the military yet the DPRK refuses to reform its own economy to help North Koreans feed themselves.
"At my request, The General Accounting Office (GAO) recently completed two major studies of our assistance programs in North Korea. Our aid is supposed to be closely monitored to prevent diversions to the Communist Party or the military. But according to the GAO report, which will be released Friday, our fuel and food aid has not been effectively monitored.
"While the U.N. World Food Program under its American Executive Director, Catherine Bertini, is doing an outstanding job, the North Koreans have not let her monitors visit more than 10% of actual food distribution sites. This means that 90% of the sites where food is distributed have not been visited by a food monitor. This runs counter to our nation's policy.
"North Korea is the world's most repressive regime. It brutally oppresses the fundamental human rights of its people and sends many of them to languish in political prisons. The DPRK is now deeply involved in international narcotics trafficking and other criminal activity such as the counterfeiting of US currency.
"Shockingly, North Korea still holds prisoners from the Korean War and may be holding live Americans against their will. We must get to the ground-truth about this issue of live Americans in North Korea. All of these issues must be taken into account in any process towards normalization of relations with this rogue state.
"I am concerned our policies towards North Korea have failed and that our aid is sustaining a brutal regime. I also fear that the Clinton Administration has conditioned North Korea to believe that brinkmanship brings benefits.
"I want to thank Dr. Perry for his efforts and his service -- again-- to our nation. But we must ensure as we embark on this new path that our policy is firm; that it will require full reciprocity; that it does not undermine our fundamental national security; that it is willing to undertake tough measures in the face of North Korean belligerence; and that it does not encourage in any way the DPRK to miscalculate our nation's resolve. I wish Dr. Perry the best in carrying out this most challenging and important task."
Testifying at the hearing were Rep. Christopher Cox (CA), Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (MI), and Dr. William Perry, North Korea Policy Advisor, U.S. Department of State.
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